Mid-City residents help save woman from attacker

NEW ORLEANS, LA (WVUE) - Residents of a Mid-City neighborhood rush to a woman's defense after they hear screaming, saying someone tried to attack the woman inside her home. The incident happened in broad daylight in the 400 block of South Murat, just one block off Banks Street.

Roslyn Henderson will never forget the sound she heard coming from her neighbor's home Saturday evening just before 6:00. Henderson recalls, "It was loud, it was like a scream that you wouldn't imagine. You knew she needed help when she screamed."

Henderson and about five others ran to the woman's residence to find the front door open. They say the victim believes a masked man climbed in an open bathroom window, and was hiding in her home. Then, when she attempted to go outside to pick up her mail, the man grabbed her from behind and slammed her against a wall. Because the front door was partially open, the victim's screams reached throughout the block.

"It's very terrifying so that shows you you're not safe nowhere, it doesn't matter if you live in a good neighborhood like this, you're not safe," resident Susanna Howard said.

Just a day after the attack, Amanda Meadow is moving into the block. She explains, "The way that I heard it, one of the neighbors just approached me and said I just wanted to let you know that this happened. It's very out of place, very out of character for this neighborhood."

Meadow says she feels safe knowing the people around her, are keeping an eye out. Her friend says she urging the law student to be extra vigilant. "You just need to be cautious anywhere you go," Kristin Webb commented.

While these Mid-City residents acknowledge crime can happen in any part of New Orleans, they're shaken by the circumstances of this incident, in a quiet area, in daylight. "You see it on TV sometimes and you think oh my God but when it's actually happening in your neighborhood it's scary," Henderson said.

She's just thankful she and the others were home when they were and able to prevent a situation that could've been ended much worse.

New Orleans police have not yet released a description of the suspect. As for the victim, her neighbors say she wasn't injured in the incident.